J.C. Higgins

Bike, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

For almost sixty years, Sears sold sporting goods under the J.C. Higgins name. Originally named after longtime Sears employee John Higgins, an Irish immigrant who began working for the company in 1898, eventually becoming a vice president of the company before retiring in 1930.

The Higgins name continued to be used by Sears until 1968, and the company sold a wide range of sporting goods under the brand, from rifles to golf clubs. This included bicycles, including this farm-fresh fifties cruiser.

Ran When Parked

Ran When Parked, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

"Ran when parked" is one of those classic things you read in old car want ads, usually for some old crock that's been sitting under a tarp in someone's back yard for 27 years. It almost always means "won't run now", along with "brakes seized solid" and "squirrels have been storing acorns in the exhaust system".

Anyway, I thought of that phrase when I found this old Schwinn parked in front of one of the warehouses at the former Green River ordnance factory. It looked in pretty good shape, but it had certainly been sitting a while. The headlight was rusty, the chrome peeling, the tires flat.

Simplex

Bike, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

A rare Simplex Compact Sportsman motorcycle, in what I like to call "Farm Fresh" shape. Strapped down in the back of a cool custom fifties pickup truck.